


The Taste of Salt on Your Skin

by Android_And_Ale



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Finjob, I know Harry makes it seem irresistible but please don't touch an actual fish's vent, Ichthyologist!Harry, If Iris can't unsee this then neither can you, Interspecies Lovin', Let's just call it oral human on fish action and not ask too many questions, M/M, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Please don't touch a real fish's lateral line, Seriously so much mermaid porn, Sexy dangerous things live in the briny deep, Siren Mermaids, You Have Been Warned, blowjob, harrisco, mermaid, mermaid!Cisco, somewhat dubious consent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-17 06:18:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14182731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Android_And_Ale/pseuds/Android_And_Ale
Summary: “So what’ve we got?” asked Harry. “Another Chinese catfish with legs?”“Those guys are mean!” A soft, musical voice chimed from the behind the door to the main holding tank.Harry smirked at Iris. She looked unusually nervous. He gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze while unfolding his sample kit. “They’re survivors!” he shouted at the stranger. “Proof of evolution in action!”“And what’s this proof of?” Iris opened the door and stood back.Harry crossed his arms and glared hard at Iris. He’d never taken the West-Allen’s for pranksters.  “What have I done to deserve this?”





	The Taste of Salt on Your Skin

**Author's Note:**

> From the mind that brought you Tinkerbell!Cisco Shrink-Ray Porn comes a new tale of interspecies lovin'! Only keep reading if you're comfortable with hardcore human/mermaid porn. Ye be warned, mateys!

Harry Wells cellphone launched into the theme song from Jaws. He set aside his latest ocean acidity study and slid a finger across the surface. “Improve my day, Mr. Allen. Tell me you’ve dragged something new from the briny deep.” The declines in fish populations meant most days his job was cataloging the species of cephalopods that turned up in local fishermen’s nets. He was downright bored with tentacles.

The fisherman laughed. “Trust me, Doctor Wells. You’ve never seen anything like this.”

Harry stuffed fresh sample bags and ice packs into a cooler. “If this is another ten tentacled octopus…”

“Tell him I don’t have tentacles!” a soft voice musically chimed over Wells phone.

“New crew on the _Esther’s Eggnog_?” asked Wells. He grabbed sharpies, a couple of backup disposable waterproof film cameras, and his dissection bag.

“Not exactly.” Barry Allen chuckled. “How fast can you get to the docks?”

* * *

 

Flash Fisheries was Harry’s favorite family run business on the docks. He’d never met Old Man West, but Joe, his son Wally, and his daughter Iris had been friends of the Central City University Ichthyology professor for years. He’d introduced Iris to one of his most promising undergrads and sat proudly in the front row next to Joe and Wally when she married Barry Allen last year.

He knocked on the front door, taking care to rap his fist on Posideon’s crown for luck. Iris waved him in.

“Flash Fisheries! Fish so fresh you can pretend you caught it yourself!” She put a finger over her lips and started to roll her eyes, then sat up straighter. A slow smile spread across her face. “Fifty skate? Absolutely. We have some with beautiful wings. Your chef will have a real chance to show off tonight. We’ve also got your usual Halibut order? Anything else I can have my husband zoom over to you?”

She quickly scrawled down a few notes. “Perfect. Oh, no. It’s our pleasure. We can absolutely have that to you in an hour. Please take some photos of your chef’s creations for us. We’ll share them on Instagram!”

Harry smiled as she hung up the phone. “That sounds like a hell of an order.”

Iris looped her arm through Harry’s and escorted him out to the _Esther’s Eggnog_. “Thank god. We have to go twice as far out to get half as many fish. And these days some of the stuff we pull up is just.” She paused, smiling nervously. “You’ll see.”

“Do I hear the most beautiful creature on land?” Barry Allen’s head popped up as he climbed a ladder from below decks. He grinned like an otter at the sight of his wife.

“Yes, but I also brought Iris.” It was an old joke, but the crew still laughed at it every time.

Barry’s hands slid along his wife’s cheeks. He stared at her as though he was amazed such a perfect creature existed, then leaned in breathlessly for a soft kiss.

Harry’s cheeks flushed as he suppressed a grin. Being in the blast radius of their love made him feel a decade younger.

Iris handed her husband the stock list. “Salt and Steel wants this in an hour. Can you get it there?”

“Already done, baby.” He kissed her again while looking over the order. “How did you talk them into unloading the skate?”

She winked at Harry. “I’m that good.”

Barry stared at the ladder down into the ship. “If it was anyone but you I’d say come back tonight, but…”

“I won’t set fire to your ship, Mr. Allen.” Harry dropped his gear kit over the side and expertly slid down the ladder.

“I’ll make the introductions.” Iris kissed the tip of her husband’s nose. He ducked in for one more quick taste of her lips before running off to fill the order. Iris followed Harry down the ladder.

“So what’ve we got?” asked Harry. “Another Chinese catfish with legs?”

“Those guys are mean!” A soft, musical voice chimed from the behind the door to the main holding tank.

Harry smirked at Iris. She looked unusually nervous. He gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze while unfolding his sample kit. “They’re survivors!” he shouted at the stranger. “Proof of evolution in action!”

“And what’s this proof of?” Iris opened the door and stood back.

Harry stared. A few depressingly small sole and herring swam around the bottom of the holding tank, waiting to be tossed back in the ocean in the hopes they’d grow into something worth catching for sale. They ducked around a creature with an iridescent green and purple tail as long as a full grown halibut. Attached to…

“What have I done to deserve this?” Harry crossed his arms and glared hard at Iris. He’d never taken the West-Allen’s for pranksters.

“No joke, Doc,” Iris whispered. “It’s _real_.”

“That is not a mermaid.” Harry frowned at the smooth, honey skin of the creature’s flat torso. “Merman?”

“Um, we’re not too clear on it’s gender,” said Iris. “Neither is it. He? It doesn't have breasts. Or any junk we can decipher.”

The creature ducked under the water, neck gills expanding in a flash of pink as it breathed. Harry took a step forward, frowning. It appeared to have secondary gills along its spine. Two stripes of purple coloration extended up from the tail, over the expanse of the back, until they looped over the very human shoulders and down to the ribcage, passing over the smooth skin where a human would have nipples.

“At least your prank is scientifically accurate.” Breasts on mermaids always offended Harry’s scientific sensibilities.

The creature splashed up out of the water, long black hair coiling around its shoulders and cascading down to the transition between skin and scale. It rested its forearms on the edge of the tank, watching them with curious brown eyes. Harry could see iridescent green webbing between its fingers.

“Yeah.” Iris looked uncomfortable under the creature’s gaze. “When we asked if it was a boy or girl it seemed real confused about the concept.”

Harry’s brain took a moment to parse her words. “You. What?”

“Hi!” A friendly brown hand waved from the side of the tank. “You can call me Cisco. I like the shape of those vowels in my mouth.” Cisco’s plush lips spread into a wide, sunny smile.

Harry stared at Iris, unable to speak. His mouth opened and closed several times. He looked over at the creature, back to her, and finally closed his mouth.

“Why do you think we called you?” Iris hissed. She nervously waved a couple of fingers back at the mermaid. It winked at her.

Harry studied the transition between human looking flesh and aquatic scales. “Cisco. Right. May I examine you?” It was movie quality work, but he wasn’t about to let the West-Allen’s get him on video declaring mer-people were real.

Cisco swam a tight circle in the tank, showing off an unnerving flexibility. “I’ve got nothing to hide.”  

From the way he moved, Harry couldn’t imagine how legs fit into that prosthetic tail. Harry pulled Iris close, leaning into her ear. “If this is a prank I will never forgive you.”  She nodded, eyes wide.

“Hello, Cisco. I’m Harry.” Harry pointed at his chest. Cisco cheerfully waved again. “Alright, first thing’s first. I’m not calling a sentient person ‘it.’ Should be easy to sex a genuine aquatic creature after a cursory examination.”

Iris snorted. “You want me to leave you two alone?”

Harry rolled his eyes. “You know damn well that just means determining the gender.”

“They asked me that before.” Cisco looked frustrated. “But they wouldn’t demonstrate.”

“Can you point me to your vents?” asked Harry.

Cisco drifted back in the tank and proudly pointed at his navel.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Harry muttered. He hung his puffy black coat on a hook near the door and turned on the ship’s space heater. Prank or not, he was about to get wet.

Iris’s phone trilled again. “Damn. I’m sorry, Harry, I have to take this.” She covered the phone’s mouthpiece “I’ll leave you below decks with it.”

They watched Iris go. Harry was still sure this was a frat boy in an especially well made mermaid costume. He looked around the cabin for evidence of a hidden camera.

Screw it. A lifetime of hauling around hundred pound fish gave him arms and abs to be proud of. He peeled off his black sweater and undershirt and hung them on the peg next to his coat. Cisco looked intrigued.

“Float on your back. I want to examine this transition.” Harry’s finger traced a line from the middle of Cisco’s chest down the coarsening skin to where scales began. Cisco reached over the side of the tank and mirrored the motion along Harry’s chest. His fingers caught on the top of Harry’s pants. “This isn’t part of your body?”

Harry spread his fingers wide, continuing to slide them along the transition between flesh and scale, searching for a seam. If this was a prank it was brilliantly done. He ignored Cisco tucking two fingers into the front of his pants and holding onto the fabric.

“How do you know English?” he asked.

Cisco shrugged. “Everybody knows English. It’s on all your packaging. And in all your transmissions. Even tiny hatchlings know English and Chinese.” He dipped a finger in the water and used it to write _‘This Side Up_ ’ on Harry’s bare chest. Harry’s nipples hardened under Cisco’s cold, wet fingers.

“Alright. I’m not calling a person it. In most aquatic species the males are more colorful. Are you comfortable with me calling you ‘he’?” asked Harry.

Cisco’s stared up at him with wide eyed innocence. This was getting him nowhere. Harry leaned heavily against the edge of the tank. “Alright. How do you reproduce?”

Now Cisco looked genuinely confused. Harry snorted. This might be why no one had ever seen one before.  “How do you make more people like yourself?” asked Harry.

“Oh!” Cisco’s face lit up. “Twice a year the governor holds a gala. You dance, fatten yourself up on free food, and when you find a group of people you like you ask if you can release your cloud near theirs.”

Harry’s hands covered his face. That was actually a pretty good description of fish spawning. “Do you have any idea what’s in your cloud?”

Cisco poked his navel. “Baby stuff?”

“Can you make any outside spawning season?” asked Harry.

Cisco still looked confused.

“When you’re not at a gala? Do you ever?” Harry struggled for words. “Emit?”

“On purpose?” Cisco’s eyebrows narrowed.

Harry grunted in frustration. His hands slid up Cisco’s body, one finger tracing the circle of his navel. Cisco giggled, the chimes giving way to something that sounded almost like a pair of flutes piping quiet music from his gills.

On closer examination the vent hole was significantly larger than a human navel. Cisco’s hand tightened on Harry’s pants as Harry slid a finger around the perimeter then experimentally pushed inwards.

“Hey, stranger!” Cisco gasped. “I mean, everybody pokes their vent from time to time.” A tail fin curled up out of the water, flexing inwards.

“I’d like to examine whatever comes out,” said Harry.

“Out of season?” Harry involuntarily swayed a little at Cisco’s musical laugh. “Yeah? Well, then I’ll examine whatever comes out of you.” The hand on Harry’s belt slid up his abs. Cisco’s finger experimentally poked Harry’s navel. “What the?” His webbed fingers spread over Harry’s abs, once more searching shallowly in his navel.

“It’s purely decorative,” said Harry.

“What happened to you!” Cisco shot up, his mouth gaping in horror.

“Calm down,” said Harry. “We’re all born that way.” He smirked down at his own stomach.

“Then how do you...?” Cisco sank down in the tank until only his head and hands were above water. His eyes stayed level with the edge, staring suspiciously at Harry’s navel.

Harry studied the room one more time, looking for any evidence that this was a prank. If so, it was movie grade work. That vent hole didn’t belong on a humanoid torso. The gills on his neck and along his spine looked red and wet on the insides. Someone paid careful attention to small details, like the cranberry lateral line that ran from Cisco’s wrists to inner elbows to armpits and then down both sides until it reached his tail fin, the one consistent feature overlying both skin and scale. And that skin to scale transition was unlike anything he’d seen in the decades of his career.

“Sexual dimorphism.” Harry unbuttoned his pants. Cisco looked fascinated by both the button and zipper, like he was taking notes for the future. “Instead of a vent, this is normal human male equipment.” He pulled down his boxers with the confidence of a man who knew he was above average.

Cisco still looked suspicious, but he rose far enough out of the water that his chin rested on the side of the tank.  “Can I touch it?”

Harry closed his eyes. He should’ve predicted that. “Humans only touch one another there when they want to,” he grasped for an analogy that would make sense to a fish. “Go to a gala.”

Cisco’s wide eyes roamed Harry’s lean frame, eventually settling back on Harry’s cock. He hummed softly to himself. “Does it detach?”

“What? No. Why?” Harry’s hand reflexively covered himself.

Cisco grinned up at Harry. “How long does it take to grow a new one?” He stretched out a fingertip. The humming seemed to come from his gills now.  

Harry swatted Cisco’s hand away. “It’s attached for life. Doesn’t grow back.”

He looked intrigued. “If they’re not feeding us, why do so many sailors want put it in our mouths?”

Harry tried to look nonchalant despite the heat rising in his cheeks. He cocked his head to one side. “Have you ever?”

Cisco shook his head. “Nah. Never even seen human bits till now. The couple who netted me wouldn’t show me anything.” Cisco rolled his wide brown eyes. He pulled himself up so his forearms rested on the side of the tank and nestled his chin in one hand. “So what does it do?”

Harry turned away from Cisco’s curious, innocent gaze, preferring to stare at the wall. This conversation was quickly spiraling out of control. He pulled out his phone. “There are videos that can explain better than I can.”

While Harry fumbled with his phone, Cisco ducked under the water again, his gills flexing as they filled. On closer examination his thick hair seemed like a protective mechanism meant to keep his gills moist when his torso was above water. He pulled himself up so his elbows rested on the edge of the tank.  He grinned up at Harry, humming a soft tune to himself accompanied by flute-like music coming from his gills. Harry took a step closer, fascinated by Cisco’s ability to simultaneously use his lungs to power both his mouth and gills. How did that work? It didn’t make any biological sense.

“You touched my vent. It’s only fair I get to touch your…?” He waved his fingers in playful circles, pointing south of Harry’s navel. From the way his gaze slid over Harry’s thighs, he seemed a lot more interested in Harry’s legs than his penis.

Harry took a step closer. Cisco’s hand slid between his thighs, taloned fingers lightly brushing over the sensitive skin. He pulled on an individual hair, tugging gently to see how far he could make the skin stretch before yanking it free. Harry’s wince elicited a chime-like giggle from Cisco. Harry tried to focus on Cisco’s bright, curious face, his wide eyes far more intrigued by the definition of muscles in his legs and interplay of hair and skin than by the very human cock slowly filling near his cheek.

“Touching your legs inflates it?” Cisco poked Harry’s half hard cock with a finger. He returned to stroking Harry’s thighs in fascination while quietly humming to himself.

“That’s one way.” The rational part of Harry’s brain abruptly went offline. He felt like he was watching his own possessed body from across the room as he took Cisco’s hand and wrapped it around his shaft. He swallowed hard as his own hand closed around Cisco’s, urging him to stroke. “Simple friction is another.”

Cisco’s face lit up. He looked utterly fascinated with his new toy. One hand wrapped tight around Harry’s thigh, anchoring him in place while webbed fingers idly twirled through the dusting of hair. His other began long, languid strokes along Harry’s shaft. Cisco’s grin grew along with Harry’s erection. His tail curled backwards, the caudal fins fanning out in the air behind his head.

This was surreal. And probably illegal. Harry knew he should stop. Instead, he said, “Lick the end.”

Cisco raised his eyebrows, but gingerly stuck out a curious tongue, licking a long slow stripe along Harry’s head as his soft, honeyed strokes continued. Harry moaned. Cisco took that as encouragement and licked a broad line across the head again. This time, his lips closed around it. He dragged the warm, spongy head across his plush mouth, back and forth in time with his strokes, occasionally darting his tongue out to lap at Harry’s slit.

Harry leaned forward, clutching the edge of the tank. Cisco took the whole head into his mouth, lavishing it with kitten licks while still stroking Harry’s cock. Harry lay a hand on Cisco’s soft, cool cheek, fingers curling over the line of his jaw, down to the dimple in his chin. He gently pulled at Cisco’s bottom lip. “Open your mouth.” His voice was low, husky, filled with salty need.

Cisco stared up at him with wide, innocent eyes as his lips parted. For the first time, Harry could see Cisco’s mouth was home to two rows of razor sharp teeth. The rational part of his brain that had gone offline earlier screamed for him to back away. Instead Harry buried a hand in the impossible creature’s thick, black hair and gently pushed into Cisco’s wet, eager mouth.

Cisco anchored himself by wrapping both arms around Harry’s thighs while Harry gently slid over his tongue. Cisco’s mouth was cooler than he expected, but still wet and inviting, his full lips tight around Harry’s cock, protecting him from those rows of teeth. He started to hum softly through his gills, a steady, flute-like tune that vibrated his tongue and lips. Harry sucked air through his teeth, moaning quietly in return.

Cisco’s fingers curiously traced the musculature of Harry’s thighs, like a butcher sizing up the best cuts. He paused occasionally to play with the dusting of hair over novel limbs. His wide, innocent eyes stared up as Harry’s fucked gently into his too soft, too good, too cool and salty mouth.

Harry leaned forward to cup a handful of salt water and pour it over Cisco’s gills. Cisco’s eyes twinkled. His webbed hands stopped their roaming and spread wide over Harry’s ass as he took  Harry deeper, tongue sliding along his shaft, lips tight around him, until Cisco’s nose was flush against Harry’s public hair, his gills vibrating musically against the head of Harry’s cock.

He could feel Cisco’s smile as he nuzzled into the hair. “Easy!” Harry’s hand tightened in Cisco’s hair, holding him in place as tiny pinpricks of razor sharp teeth pierced the base of his cock. “It’s fragile,” he murmured. “If you’re done, just open your mouth as wide as possible. I’ll pull out.”

Cisco’s tongue returned, gently protecting Harry from his teeth. Harry sighed in relief as Cisco’s mouth gracefully slid off his cock. Cisco smiled up at him, calculating, then licked his way along Harry’s shaft again until he could lap up the beads of blood drawn by his teeth. Some vestige of a survival instinct told Harry this would be a good time to pull his pants back up.

The burn of salt in the tiny pinpricks should’ve been a turnoff, but Harry didn’t protest when Cisco’s webbed hand wrapped around his cock, nuzzing it against his soft, cold cheek. He tugged playfully at Harry’s pubic hair, clearly fascinated. “Where are your gills?”

Harry swallowed hard. “No gills. Just lungs. I can’t breathe underwater.”

Cisco twirled a finger in Harry’s pubic hair. “So what’s this for?”

All the anthropological theories of human body hair placement he’d read as an undergraduate swirled through Harry’s head. He settled on, “Decoration.”

“I like it.” Cisco’s grin widened. His grip around Harry’s shaft tightened. Harry gasped as Cisco once more wrapped soft lips around his head, clever tongue gently lapping impossible patterns in time with the strokes of his hand.

“Cisco,” Harry whispered. His hand tightened in Cisco’s hair. He fought the impulse to surge back into Cisco’s wet, eager mouth. “I’m…” he struggled for the right words, “It’s gala time.”

Chime-like laugher spilled from Cisco’s gills. He pulled his mouth off Harry’s cock, staring in fascination at the end while still stroking the shaft. His free hand cupped Harry’s balls, squeezing gently. Harry moaned, exploding onto Cisco’s sweet, confused face.

Cisco laughed as the salty ropes splashed over his cheeks. “That is NOT a cloud!”

Harry sat hard on the side of the tank, breathing heavily. “Afraid not. Hope that wasn’t…” he let the sentence trail off as his body slumped in Cisco’s direction. He dangled a hand in the water, gently brushing against Cisco’s shoulder. It’s not like they could cuddle, but he still wanted to wanted to touch him, stay in some kind of contact until the afterglow faded.

Cisco seemed completely unconcerned. He wiped the jizz off his face and floated on his back until his vent was above water. He tasted a little of it then shrugged.

“What are you doing?” asked Harry.

Cisco looked up from casually stuffing the semen into his vent hole. “Saving this for later.” Before Harry could protest, he held up a hand. “You’re not the only one who wants to study the emissions of strange creatures from foreign environments.”

Harry sighed. “I wish you hadn’t. I wanted to get an uncontaminated sample from you.” He couldn’t face his lab mates if anyone found human semen mixed with whatever was in Cisco’s cloud.

Cisco let himself drift until the tip of  his caudal fin brushed gently over Harry’s cheek. He expected it to be as coarse as seaweed, but it felt like wet silk.  “If I let you have a sample from me I’ll need a fresh one from you.”

Harry was startled by the fin’s graceful slide from his cheek to his stubbled jaw, down the middle of his chest, until it playfully flicked his limp cock back and forth. “That’s stunning dexterity.”

Cisco’s toothy grin widened. “I work out.”

Harry blinked in surprise. “What exactly does that mean for you?”

The edge of Cisco’s fin slid along Harry’s inner thigh. His entire body turned suddenly in the water and the soft caudal fin rapidly hardened. Cisco’s back arched, putting weight on the fin, and as a result Harry’s pants were shoved from his thighs to his ankles while Cisco’s body arched up out of the water in a reverse dive until he perched on the edge of the tank.

“Can you voluntarily fill your extremities with some kind of non-neutonian fluid?” Harry was fascinated by the change in texture and density of Cisco’s tail fin.

Cisco braced his arms on the edge of the tank. Balancing out of the water wasn’t easy. “You wanna do that thing where you shove your tongue in my mouth?”

Harry blinked in surprise. “Your mouth is full of razor sharp teeth.” He spread his lips wide to demonstrate the shovel-like shape of human teeth.

“Weird.” Cisco pushed Harry’s lips up to the gum-line, stretching his cheeks as he studied the interior of Harry’s mouth. “Don’t your people have legends about a singer who had her tongue chewed out in exchange for legs?”

“Can’t sing. Already have legs. No point,” said Harry. He stared at Cisco’s plush lips. The danger warning in the back of his head started to ring again. “Your people don’t kiss?”

“Show me?” Cisco’s soft lips spread into a wide, predatory smile full of razor sharp teeth.

Harry looped an arm around his waist, just under the fluttering edge of his dorsal fin, and pulled him close, slotting Cisco’s tail between his thighs. His lips lightly brushed against the cold, salty softness of Cisco’s mouth. He sucked gently on Cisco’s bottom lip, resisting the urge to nibble at it lest Cisco do the same to him. Cisco moved in return, soft mouth flowing against Harry’s. “No teeth,” Harry whispered.

Cisco trailed a line of kisses down Harry’s neck. He nuzzled against Harry’s shoulder, tongue darting out to taste the salt of his skin, and Harry could feel the ivory hardness of teeth pressed up against his flesh. He let go of Cisco’s waist and took a step back. Cisco’s grin widened. He winked at Harry, then suddenly pulled him back flush against his body with a shocking amount of strength.

Cisco’s fingers carded through Harry’s brown curls, softly searching. “Still no gills,” said Harry.

He’d never thought much about his body hair, but Cisco’s fascination with it left him wishing he had more. His hands slid down Harry’s cheeks, fingers gingerly moving over his three days of stubble. Harry’s hands slid across Cisco’s deceptively soft flesh, a protective layer of insulation wrapped around rock hard muscle. His fingers slid down his waist, to that mystifying line where skin gave way to scale. As his fingers teased the transition, one of Cisco’s arms looped around Harry’s neck while his free hand slid down Harry’s chest until one finger circled around his navel.

Harry took the hint. He slid a hand up to Cisco’s vent, one finger softly tracing the perimeter. Cisco gasped. The line of scales along the transition between Cisco’s skin and scale seemed coarser. A small scale came loose in his hand.

“You must be drying out.” He nodded towards the space heater, without which Harry himself would be a shivering mess.

Cisco playfully pouted at him before sliding gracefully back into the water. One splash later and the room went quiet. Tension ebbed out of Cisco’s face as his gills expanded and contracted. Harry could see Cisco’s wide brown eyes watching him from beneath the surface. He felt the gentle rocking of the ship, heard the hum of the space heater, the distant caw of a seagull.

His mind snapped into focus.

What. The. Hell.  

What if Iris came back? How would he explain why his pants were around his ankles? He awkwardly bent to fumble them back upwards when Cisco surged back up out of the water, rising high enough to hook his elbows on the outer edge of the tank. He caught Harry’s hand and pulled it to his chest. “What about those samples?” He smiled softly as the gentle notes of soft flutes escaped from his gills.

Cisco watched Harry’s face as his webbed hand gently eased Harry’s fingers from his chest down to his hips, over the mystifying transition between flesh and scales. His other fingers twirled in Harry’s pubic hair.

Harry swallowed hard as he reluctantly let go of his pants. His hand drifted back to the smooth honey flesh shot with iridescent lines of purple and green. Harry’s fingers spread, sliding over Cisco’s waist, tracing the deep contrasting cranberry of the lateral line. Cisco shivered happily under his touch. He stretched out by the edge of the tank. Floating on his back, his black hair drifting like seaweed, his tail gently fluttering under the waves. A few inches under the water, his body looked open, inviting, relaxed. He turned eager eyes to Harry and once more teased a circle around Harry’s navel.

Harry responded in kind, his hand sinking beneath the surface to gently probe Cisco’s vent. Cisco’s mouth fell open as his eyes fluttered to half mast. The pitch of his musical humming dropped lower. Harry gently circled the vent, sliding his finger a millimeter deeper each time around.

“It’s different without talons,” Cisco murmured.

“Good different or bad different?” asked Harry.

Cisco chuckled. “It’s why my friend Cait makes friends with octopodes, different.”

The rigid vent didn’t stretch as Harry circled it. There was no way he’d be able to fit in a second finger, much less anything else, but Cisco seemed to enjoy the stimulation.

Harry kept one hand on Cisco’s hip, his fingers still marveling at the transition between skin and scale, while his other hand teased the perimeter of Cisco’s vent. Cisco’s webbed hand slid up his arm, closing tight around his bicep. Beneath the water, his gills flared wide, flashing pink against the honey brown skin of Cisco’s neck in what Harry interpreted as the merfolk equivalent of gasping.

He concentrated on keeping a steady rhythm and depth while studying Cisco’s body for reactions. The cranberry lateral line seemed to almost glow while the iridescent purple markings stretching from fin to shoulder deepened in color. Cisco’s mouth opened impossibly wide, giving Harry a frightening view of razor sharp teeth set in a jaw that unhinged far enough to easily bite an eel in half.

Cisco’s grip on Harry’s bicep tightened, talons digging small pinpricks into Harry’s skin. His tail fin twisted, creating a series of waves lapping over Cisco’s torso in time with the fanning of his gills. Despite his own suspicious nudity, Harry wished he’d set up a camera. This didn’t parallel any normal aquatic behavior he’d seen either in the wild or captivity. He resisted the urge to speed up his circling in time with the waves. It’d been awhile, but experience taught him that if something was working, keep doing it until asked to change.

The waves splashed harder and faster, soaking Harry and throwing one of the tiny sole out of the tank. Cisco’s humming transformed into an impossibly musical sound, like a pair of flutes dueling with a clarinet. Harry fought his body’s urge to climb into the tank and under the water to get closer. He grit his teeth, forcing himself to stay on his side of the tank while still methodically working Cisco’s vent. His heavy breathing matched the pace of Cisco’s fluttering gills as Cisco’s vent suddenly exploded with a mass of particulate that looked shockingly like an underwater nuclear test.  

The rational part of Harry’s brain finally took over. His free hand fumbled around the edge of the tank for any sort of container. It wasn’t sterile of contaminants, but he grabbed a nearby empty water bottle and slid one arm under Cisco’s waist, lifting his belly out of the water as Harry slapped the mouth of the bottle over the pseudo-navel. Cisco gaped in shock, but Harry smiled in grim satisfaction as it filled. Once he had 16 ounces of whatever the hell just came out of Cisco, he gently slipped his arm from under his waist, easing him back into the water to emit the last of his cloud. Cisco breathlessly watched, eyes sparkling and curious as Harry screwed a plastic cap in place.

“You know at least half of that is you.” Cisco’s voice still rang of flutes, impossible music coming from his gills as words emerged from his throat.

Harry laughed as he stared at the cloudy bottle. “No more than a tablespoon. At the most.”

Cisco inhaled deeply. Harry watched his ribs expand as he floated to the surface. His torso floated on the surface of the water while his webbed fingers and tail fin gently splashed in slow, relaxed motions. “Reinflating your swim bladder?” asked Harry.

Cisco lazily drifted over to him, his face upside down from this angle. Harry thought of Mary Jane kissing spiderman and leaned down. Before he could brush his lips against Cisco’s the mermaid stuck out his tongue. “Anyone ever tell you that you have lousy taste in post-coital chat?”

“Everyone,” Harry reassured him.

Cisco laughed. The flutes faded to a tinkle of distant chimes. He stretched his arms up and back so his webbed hands slid up over Harry’s calves, rough fingertips teasing his leg hair, then up to his knees, and back over Harry’s thighs. This was a terrible idea. Harry knew it as he spread his legs. He swallowed deeply as Cisco’s inquisitive fingers made lazy circle 8’s around his balls.

“Come in the water with me,” said Cisco.

“It’s too cold,” said Harry. “I’ll pass out from hypothermia within half an hour.”

Cisco’s strong hands wrapped around Harry’s thighs. He pulled himself up so his head rested on the edge of the tank. Harry noticed that his caudal fin constantly splashed water over his exposed vent, which looked surprisingly red and tender. He leaned forward, searching for a way to raise the water level in the ship’s live captivity salt water tanks. As he stretched for a valve, Cisco’s head nestled between his thighs. He licked a slow line across the underside of Harry’s balls.

Harry froze in place. Cisco giggled again, this time with more hints of chimes than flutes. Was the perceived sound of the instrument an in-water versus out of water effect? Harry didn’t have time to wonder before both his balls were in Cisco’s wet, salty mouth. Part of him wanted to pull away, but he remembered that dual line of razor sharp teeth. Instead, he stretched as far as his lanky arms would allow, letting a bit more of the outside sea water into the holding tank. Cisco relaxed as his navel was covered in fresh saltwater. In response, his tongue lapped circles around each of Harry’s balls.

Harry sighed as Cisco’s mouth gently slid away.

“I like you.” Cisco flipped over in the rising water, belly down, stretched comfortably now. His forearms rested on the edge of the tank, chin nestled in his hands. “Imma tell you a secret,” he whispered.

Harry raised his eyebrows.

“This is my first solo trip up top. I’ve never done this before.” He winked at Harry’s cock. “But I’m supposed to come back with…” He dragged a taloned finger along Harry’s shaft.

Harry took a step back. “Why?”

Cisco rolled his eyes. “At the galas, when it’s just us all we hatch are dumb little fish. They’re not even tasty. But when we get some bits from a sailor to spread around,” he waggled his eyebrows, “then a few of the dumb little fish grow up into people.”

Harry had a terrifying vision of an undersea room full of merfolk entertaining themselves at a gala by tossing his severed cock around like a deflated football. “That’s incredibly inefficient,” he said. This wasn’t the time to explain spermatozoa development, maturation, and emission to a hungry aquatic alien. “What you really want is the end result. You’ll get a lot more use of out that than the empty organ itself.”

Cisco’s grin widened. “See! That’s what I told them! Send me up top and I’ll find a *smart* sailor! The last couple thingies people brought back?” Cisco sighed. “That whole generation is dumber than a squid in a shark tank.”

“What about the West-Allens?” asked Harry.

“They’d do,” Cisco shrugged, “But you’re better. Smarter.” Cisco gave him his best innocent, wide-eyed stare, then giggled again. “Plus, I couldn’t make them take their clothes off.”

“Wait here,” said Harry. He kissed the top of Cisco’s head.

“Where else do you expect me to go?” Cisco gestured around the enclosed tank. He did a backflip, soaking his gills once more, then emerged to watch as Harry dug a small disposable water bottle and matching cap out of the trash.

“I can send you home with a sample of human DNA. No need to take an entire organ with you. This is far more efficient.”

Cisco rested his chin on one hand. “You gonna emit into that?”

Harry stared up at the ceiling. “It...only seems fair, under the circumstances.”

“Nah, man.” Cisco stared hungrily at Harry’s cock. “It’s gotta get mixed into us anyway. Plus, your boring way is no fun.”

“Ripping off a man’s dick and balls is?” Harry raised his eyebrows.

Cisco’s eyes twinkled. He gave Harry an unapologetic shrug.

Harry crossed his arms. “So what do you suggest?”

Cisco slid back in the water, turning in a few tight, acrobatic twists before his tail fin arched up and over the edge of the tank. He dragged the tips up the sides of Harry’s thighs then folded the fin in half, the flesh filling and hardening once more as it closed around Harry’s cock.

Harry blinked in surprise at both the dexterity and the action. He knew he should back away, but damn did the smooth, tight fin feel good wrapped around him. And it’s not like Cisco had teeth down here.

Harry slid his fingers over the cranberry lateral line along the sides of Cisco’s caudal fin. Cisco’s relaxed grin widened. “Do that again.”

Harry slid his cock deeper between the folds of Cisco’s fin while his fingertips stretched from the tip of his lateral line up as far as he could reach and back again. He looked up to see Cisco’s eyelids fluttering again. “You’ve never tried this before?”

“Not out of water.” Cisco’s voice was once more laced with chimes. “It’s...damn. Keep it up.” He folded his arms underneath his head, tail half out of the water, and watched as Harry’s fingers slid over the sides of his body, thumb always on the lateral line, moving in time with his thrusts between the deliciously wet, tight folds of Cisco’s fins.

Harry was fascinated by Cisco’s response. Under water, a fish’s lateral line was a powerful sensory organ with no human analog, allowing the fish to detect movement, vibration, and sudden changes in nearby water pressure. Out of the water, stroking the line seemed to cross just the right wires in the humanoid part of Cisco’s brain.

Harry’s own eyes dropped to half mast as Cisco’s caudal fin tightened around him. He bucked into the so soft, so wet pressure, concentrating hard on keeping his thumbs and forefingers steady along the soft cranberry line stretching up the sides of Cisco’s body.

The dueling flutes of Cisco’s musical moans returned, tickling something in the back of Harry’s brain that made him want to crawl over Cisco’s body and into the tank.

“I’m stronger than I look.” Cisco’s voice was like chimes ringing behind the flutes. He stared up at Harry through heavy lidded eyes, one taloned finger tracing lazy circles around his vent. “I won’t break.”

Harry held onto the end of Cisco’s tail, never letting his fingers stop working that long, sweet line that made Cisco moan as he thrust harder between the folds of fin, the tight, soft, wet friction dragging noises from his own throat he hadn’t heard in more years than he cared to admit. His hips stuttered, fingers and thrusts losing their rhythm against the too tight too smooth too good flesh as he felt the heat of his own orgasm coiling, twisting, surging out of him. He gasped Cisco’s name, spilling hot and wet between the folds of the mermaid’s fins.

He slumped forward, body draped over the lower half of Cisco’s tail as he continued stroking the long cranberry lateral line that stretched along the sides of Cisco’s body. Cisco shivered beneath him, the musical flutes of his moans luring Harry forward.

Spent yet hungry, he couldn’t resist the siren call of Cisco’s sweet temptation. Harry half crawled over Cisco’s body until his knees were braced on the edge of the tank and his mouth could reach Cisco’s vent. He gently pushed Cisco’s hand away as he leaned in, licking the soft honey flesh around it before sliding his warm, wet tongue around the perimeter.

Cisco’s body arched underneath him. Harry’s fingers sought the stretch of lateral line that extended up from Cisco’s scales to his skin and dug his fingers in, stroking long lines down the sides of his ribs, to his hips, and back up again in time with the circles of his tongue.

Cisco’s musical moans bordered on an orchestra, flutes whistling from his throat gills, something deep and bass resonant from the gills along his lower spine, while the chimes pouring from his mouth sounded almost like words. Beneath the soft, smooth surface of his stomach, Harry could feel Cisco’s muscles tense. He let his tongue sink deeper into the salty hole, swirling circles around the perimeter. A faint spray of something slightly sweet and sticky bubbled up, and suddenly Cisco roughly pulled Harry’s head to one side. Harry kept his fingers moving along Cisco’s sides as he watched a second, smaller cloud roll from Cisco’s body, spreading wetly over them both.

A webbed hand rested on the back of Harry’s head, talons gently twirling in his brown curls. Cisco’s eyes were glassy and distant as he panted, every exhalation like a tinkling of windchimes against the backdrop of slowly quieting flutes.

Harry kissed a line across Cisco’s chest. Reluctantly, he dragged his wet, shivering body back to  dry safety and stood nearer the space heater. Cisco curled against the edge of the tank, still catching his breath. He slid a hand into Harry’s, gently holding it while they both breathed heavily, staring at one another in wonder.

After a few moments Cisco curled his tail upwards so his hands could reach the wet smear Harry left on his tail. He lazily scooped it up and smeared it into his vent hole, gasping a little from over stimulation.

“I hope that’s enough,” said Harry.

Cisco shot him a relaxed smile, all happiness and teeth. “I know where to find you if it’s not.”

Harry frowned. “Aren’t you afraid of getting caught?”

Cisco’s happy grin took on a predatory edge. “Sailors only catch us when we want them to.” He gestured vaguely around the hold. “We know how to take down a ship.” Harry shivered, remembering the sound of impossible music flowing from Cisco’s gills and his nearly uncontrollable impulse to climb in the water.

He looked around for a clean towel. The best he could find were a couple of work rags without too many stains. Cisco watched curiously as Harry stood close to the space heater, rubbing the salt stiff cloth against his body in an attempt to dry up before he got dressed.

He stared once more at Cisco’s impossible body before reluctantly pulling up his pants. “You should know I don’t believe for a second that you have no idea how your reproductive anatomy works.”

Cisco shot him his best innocent, confused look. “But, gosh. I’ve seen your media. Your dudes are all about inexperienced people who have no idea how their bodies work.” He winked away Harry’s offended glare.

“Not all of us.” Part of him still wanted to slide into the cold water, hypothermia be damned. Instead he grudgingly pulled on his black tanktop. “I’ll tell Iris to release you where you were caught.”

Cisco held up a hand, pretending to study his talons. “Or I could rip a hole in the side of the ship and swim home right now.”

“Please don’t,” said Harry. “They’re a good family and they couldn’t afford the loss of their boat.”

Cisco blew him a kiss. “For you. But they better get me home before dawn. I got my own deadlines.”

“For what?” Harry was intrigued.

Cisco curled a finger, summoning him over. The only noise in the cargo hold was the hum of the space heater and the faint lapping of waves against the hull. Harry strode over over his own volition. Cisco’s webbed hand cupped his cheek. He drew Harry down, pressing a gentle kiss against his lips. “Sorry not sorry I didn’t rip off your thingie and kill you.”

Harry smirked back. “Thanks?”

They were interrupted by a hesitant knock. Harry straightened up as Iris opened the door. Cisco rested a possessive hand against Harry’s hip, his expression once more a convincing facade of wide eyed innocence.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I need Doctor Wells.” She shot Cisco a nervous smile.

Harry squeezed Cisco’s shoulder, smiling warmly at him. “He’s sentient. I’m not locking him in a lab, and neither are you. Make sure you take him back where you found him. Tonight.”

Iris’ head bobbed. “Not a problem. We’ll get it done before dawn.” Cisco winked at her. She shivered and backed another step closer to the door.

Harry grabbed his 16 ounce sample bottle and stuffed the handful of loose scales in one pocket. He pulled out a pocket knife and gestured at Cisco’s hair. “Can I have a lock?”

Cisco crossed his arms. “Can I have some of yours?” he huffed.

Harry reached up and awkwardly sliced off a random curl.

“Dude. No. You should’ve let her do it. Now you look like you just scraped barnacles off your scalp.”  

Harry held out the lock of hair. Cisco took it with one hand while proffering the end of one of his own long locks in return. Harry wished he could pluck a dozen hairs from Cisco’s scalp, preferably with the cuticle still attached, but under the circumstances he took what he was offered.

“Goodbye, Cisco. This was very…” Harry struggled for words.

“Educational?” Cisco suggested.

Iris snorted.

Harry squeezed his shoulder again. “Thank you.” He stuffed the hair in the same pocket with the scales and silently followed Iris off the ship. She seemed unusually quiet until they reached the dock house.

Awkward moments passed while Iris stared uncomfortably at the wall behind Harry’s head. “I don’t know how else to say this, so I’m going to come out with it. We’ve had a problem with vandals and burglers lately, so we have security cameras on that ship. Better hidden than I’d thought.”

Harry fell into the visitor’s chair, all energy suddenly drained from his bones. “Please tell me you don’t use cloud storage.”

“Oh, no,” said Iris. “That costs extra.”

Harry rubbed a hand over his eyes. He was tired. So tired. And he didn’t think he’d ever be able to look Iris in the eyes again.

“I can never un-see that, but let’s you and me agree no one else needs to have that image burned into their retinas.” She handed him a flash drive shaped like a tentacle. “Clumsy me. I must’ve forgotten to turn on the recording before you went down there.”

“You think Barry or Joe will believe that?” asked Harry. He knew Wally wouldn’t.

“Doesn’t matter. They’ve seen that thing. I’ll imply that you suggested we erase all records for our own safety,” said Iris.

“You really should.” Harry forced himself to meet her gazed, suddenly dead serious.

“No kidding.” Iris looked calmer now, enough to actually smirk at Harry. “Because if I understood what I just saw? The next generation of merpeople will be wicked smart and more than a little dangerous.”

“Please,” Harry sighed heavily, “Never repeat that.”

“Whatever, Papi.” Iris patted his shoulder.

Harry stared at the bottle of mysteriously milky fluid  in his hands. “I really need to get back to the lab.”

Iris walked him to the door. “Do you want to come with us when we release him?”

Harry paused. Of course he wanted to, but he could still hear echoes of the impossible music drifting from Cisco’s throat and honestly doubted he was strong enough to resist if Cisco truly wanted to pull him under the waves. “Best if I don’t.”

He pulled a modified Water Wolf deep sea camera from his bag and handed it to Iris. “Send this down with him. Let him know which safety buoys have wi-fi.”

“You sure, Doctor Wells?” Iris didn’t take the camera.

Harry barked a short laugh. “Who would believe us?”

Iris reluctantly let him place it in her hands. “I’m afraid of what we’ll learn,” she said.

Harry could still hear Cisco’s flute-like humming echoing in his ears, still felt the urge to strip down and slide back into the deathly cold tank, still wanted to wrap himself around Cisco’s deceptively soft body and let his mouth full of razor sharp teeth roam wherever he wanted.

“You should be.”

  



End file.
